PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Yuting Liu
AU  - Elizabeth M. Bafaro
AU  - Robert E. Dempski
TI  - Heterologous expression of the human ZIP4 zinc transporter in <em>Saccharomyces cerevisiae</em>
AID  - 10.1101/2021.09.27.461959
DP  - 2021 Jan 01
TA  - bioRxiv
PG  - 2021.09.27.461959
4099  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2021/09/27/2021.09.27.461959.short
4100  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2021/09/27/2021.09.27.461959.full
AB  - The human (h) transporter, hZIP4 is the primary zinc importer in the intestine and is also expressed in a variety of organs such as the pancreas and brain. Dysfunction of hZIP4 can result in the zinc deficiency disease acrodermatitis enteropathica (AE), which disrupts digestive and immune system homeostasis. Structure-function studies of hZIP4 have been greatly hindered by the absence of a robust heterologous expression system. Here, we report the heterologous expression of hZIP4 in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Both a wild type and a mutant S. cerevisiae strain, in which the endogenous zinc transporters are deleted, were used to test the expression and localization of an hZIP4-GFP fusion protein. A full-length hZIP4-GFP and a truncated membrane domain only (mhZIP4-GFP) protein were successfully produced and targeted to the plasma membrane in yeast.Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest.